Good Books

The heart of education is often found in what the children are choosing to read and discuss. The images, ideals, and motivations of a book can affect thought processes and individual standards. There are so many good books, hold them in your hands, feel the pages, and relish in the time together.

Some Suggested Novels for Great Discussions:

• Time Machine by H.G. Wells
• What might be a modern Morlock or Eloi? How can you protect yourself from becoming like them? How can an understanding of your past affect your future? What are some things you can do now to influence the kind of future you want for yourself and your posterity?
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• What are the different weaknesses each character struggles to overcome and how can you overcome them as well? Why does Laurie, the rich boy next door, desire to be part of the March family? What is missing in his life?
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• How does his upbringing of a single mother affect David’s adulthood? How could have David protected Emily from his own best friend? What are the contrasting influences between Dora and Agnes?
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• How is Jonas’ perfect society a mask for a true dystopia? How does shielding negative experiences from history sometimes have a harmful effect? When is it okay to run away like Jonas?
• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
• When does the individual need to stand up against an oppressive government? When is deception more just than truth? How can a person find peace in difficulty? How does attitude affect happiness?
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Why do the characters share so much important information through letters rather than face-to-face? How influential are first impressions? How can the choices of one person affect the whole family? What are important considerations when choosing a spouse?
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• This is an awful dystopia and not my first choice, but if you are looking for a dystopia to discuss it is better than 1984. What makes a good leader? How can emotions affect actions? How can you gain control of emotions and not be caught up in a frenzy you will regret later? Why did the boys become numb to violence?
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• How is reading and freedom connected? Why should a person have the ability to choose what he studies? What freedoms should you continue to fight for now? How can you stand up for your rights in a positive way?
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Letters to Emily by Camron Wright
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dosoevsky
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (a play)
• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (a play)
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
• Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris
• Schooled by Gordan Korman

What are you reading?

Paperless Schools

In the October 2014 issue of Time Magazine, the article "The Paperless Classroom Is Coming" discusses President Obama's goal to have every school online by 2017. Fortunately, his term of president will be finished before that date. As a nation pushes to integrate computers for students, the flood can surge and drowned the innocent minds of future generations if no dams are built.

A computer is a tool. In the article, a teacher named Matthew Gudenius says he "always saw computers as a tool, not a subject." He continues by explaining that a mechanic doesn't go to a wrench lab, so why do we have computer labs? Put the computer on the students' desks and in their hands for all their academics. Bravo!

However, a mechanic does not use a wrench for everything. If he did so, he would not be utilizing all the tools in his tool box and would not be as successful completing his tasks. Can you imagine him pulling out his wrench to patch a tire or screw in a headlight? Ridiculous. Yet, in classrooms many students are expected to do just that.

With a slide show, Gudenius introduced the idea of paperless schools. "We don't care about handwriting," he says. The common core doesn't require teaching cursive and penmanship is no longer important. Sure, teach the children to read and type and how to punch numbers into a calculator. Using a brain isn't required anymore. Everything is online already anyway.

The future generation will be known not as illiterate (as long as they never need to read handwritten documents from the past), but instead will be known as illegible. If they do attempt to write something by hand, the words will slur and scribble like a kindergarten child. This isn't their fault. They were never taught to write in a digital classroom. How could they when a doodle pen is the only tool they were given?

The illegible generation will instead communicate in texting code. LOL - get it? Quicker, easier, and less brain work as long as you've learned all the acronyms. Spelling isn't required.One alternative some schools are applying is for the kids to learn to identify letter groups (like aw, au, oo, etc) and sort their words into the groups. This is how they practice spelling. They don't really have to remember the spelling, just get the sorting correct. This will ensure they can write the word close enough for a spell checker to identify. Let the computer do it's job, right? Don't expend any more energy in the learning than is essential.

The Time article does explain there is some skepticism. "The Association of Pediatrics has been warning parents for years to limit screen time for their children, but now the screens were filling up the school day." The article continues, "Optometrists warn that a steep increase in blue-light exposure from screens could lead to eye problems later in life. Early studies have also shown an increase in physical ailments - sore backs, dry eyes, painful necks - among kids who are asked to work most of the day on computers ..."

Yet, the nation as a whole may not be listening. Instead of using computers as just one more tool in the toolbox to be used with prudence and care, schools are getting rid of all other tools (pencils, paper, etc) and flooding their rooms with digital devices. All the subjects are being completed online. Play a math game, listen to a history video, type in an essay. Why waste time with a pencil?

Writing by hand versus typing into a computer is important to understand. Several studies have shown that writing by hand connects to the development of the brain and increases learning significantly. Learning to write, cursive in particular, actually helps children become smarter while a computer screen with already neatly formed letter denies them this opportunity. Read more about some of these studies at what's lost as handwriting fades and at why writing can make you smarter.

However, writing by hand isn't just good for the child. The baby boomer generation benefits also when taking the time to write by hand. Memory increases, cognitive skills improve, and motor skills remain sharper simply by using the writing tool instead of the computer tool. Read more about this at benefits of writing by hand.


From the website charlotte observer, this quote is found "Psychologists at Princeton and UCLA have reported that in both laboratory settings and real-world classrooms, students learn better when they take notes by hand. This does not necessarily stem from the distracting effects of computers. Rather, writing by hand allows students to process a lecture’s content and reframe it. This can lead to better understanding and memory encoding, according to the New York Times." 

A computer cannot replace the tools of pencil and paper. Computers are just one tool and should be placed in the toolbox once in a while. Overuse does not mean better use.